THE CHANGE OF SEASONS in the autumn is echoed in the Peat Spade Inn: fishermen are replaced by shooting parties and tall tales of legendry fish replaced by legendry tales of tall pheasant. The Peat Spade sits in the heart of prime shooting countryside with many famous shoots a stone’s throw from our doorstep. We take great pride in helping clients craft the perfect day, working closely with Outside Days to arrange game shooting for the single gun and the complete team. Ask at the inn or contact Howard Day for details. In or out of season, as lesson or a day out, we can arrange for clay pigeon locally through Spitfire Clayground.

As a sporting inn, we understand what it takes to make a day’s shooting complete. From helping you to avoid the garter-losing morning rush to a shoot, to rounding off a day well spent with delicious food and fine wines, the Peat Spade is delighted to accommodate the individual gun and the complete team. Hang your wet gear in our drying room, stow your gun in our safe and join us by the fire.

We offer a range of shooting opportunities based from the Peat Spade. Our days are bespoke, tailored to match style, size, price with the gun(s). From exclusive family estates to commercial shoots, from walked-up forays over dogs to large driven days, let us source your sport. Whatever the quarry, partridge, pheasant, or duck, Peat Spade days surpass expectations.
All we ask of our guns is that they hold insurance cover for third party indemnity to £1,000,000 and can provide us with written assurance. While cartridges are a matter of personal preference, we are happy to source these for you provided we are given notice. Should you be visiting the Peat Spade from abroad and wish to travel with your own shotgun, we can assist you in obtaining the relevant permits. Ask at the inn or contact Howard Day for details.

Join us for a day of simulated game shooting at Wherwell Priory, a wonderful estate set in the heart of the Test Valley, just 4 miles from The Peat Spade Inn.

The day is run like a game shoot where the drives are set to give you a taste of the real thing without hurting fur or feather. For this is fast and furious driven-clay pigeon shooting action set to replicate the flight & trajectory of pheasants, partridges, grouse, rabbits and most game you would expect to see on a ‘live’ day.

Arrive the night prior to the shoot in time for dinner in a private room of The Peat Spade Inn. The evening will be a chance to meet your fellow guests and hear a brief introduction to the shoot by Cooper & Pope Shooting Co. managing director, Oliver Pope. Oliver, and his business partner Simon Cooper, will be on hand throughout the evening to answer any questions and prepare for the following day.

On Saturday morning, after a hearty Peat Spade breakfast, the Cooper & Pope 4x4’s will whisk everyone to the first drive of the morning & the shooting will begin. You will shoot two drives before lunch, with a pair of shooting guests sharing the ‘peg’ on each drive. Such is the layout of the Wherwell that we will vary the shooting positions to adapt the difficulty factor to suit various skill levels.

Novices, or simply those who have not handled a gun for some while, present no problem and we confidently expect everyone to be shooting like demons by the time lunch comes around. Everyone will see at least 750 birds flighted over their ‘peg’ during the day and fire 250-400 cartridges.

Just before we break for lunch we have a fun & exciting decoyed pigeon shoot – but more about that on the day itself. Lunch will be taken back at the Peat Spade Inn and we will return for two more drives on a different part of the estate in the afternoon. The day will end with prizes for the decoy shoot ‘top guns’ & goodbyes over tea back at the Inn.